Recently I’ve gotten into the habit of reading the comments to Yahoo news stories. This is generally a very bad idea, because Yahoo comments are essentially unmoderated, and so the vast majority of comments for most stories are mental sewage. And when I read this story about a lawyer jailed on criminal contempt charges for refusing to say the Pledge of Allegiance, I pre-emptively cringed. But the entire first screen of comments (sorted by rating) is sane. For example:

Is this a courtroom or a 4th grade classroom?
I thought that only totalitarian regimes demanded public displays of patriotism. Don’t democratic nations favor more spontaneous ones?

As an American I am proud to say the pledge, I am also proud that because I am an American if I don’t want to I don’t have to.

To force any American to salute the US flag or say the pledge of Allegiance is un-American.

Did George Washington recite the Pledge? Jefferson? Lincoln? Nope. If they didn’t have to, neither do I. Show me where in the Constitution it says I have to recite the Pledge of Allegiance. Show me…